Search Results

Creator:

Ayer (N W) Incorporated.  Search this

Names:

American Telephone and Telegraph Company -- Advertisements  Search this

Cunningham & Walsh.  Search this

Hixson & Jorgenson  Search this

United Air Lines, Inc. -- Advertisements  Search this

Ayer, Francis Wayland  Search this

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Extent:

270 Cubic feet (1169 boxes )

7 Film reels (1463 boxes, 18 map-folders)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Film reels

Business records

Interviews

Oral history

Print advertising

Proof sheets

Proofs (printed matter)

Scrapbooks

Trade literature

Tear sheets

Advertisements

Date:

1817-1851

1869-2006

Summary:

Collection consists of records documenting one of the oldest advertising agencies created in Philadelphia. The company then moves to New York and expanses to international markets. During its history NW Ayer & Sons acquires a number of other advertising agencies and is eventually purchased. The largest portion of the collection is print advertisements but also includes radio and television. NW Ayer is known for some of the slogans created for major American companies.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists primarily of proof sheets of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son, Incorporated for their clients. These materials are in series one through thirteen and consist primarily of print advertisements. There are also billboards, radio and television commercials. The advertisements range from consumer to corporate and industrial products. The majority of the advertisements were created for Ayer's New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and international offices. Printed advertisements created by Cunningham & Walsh, Hixson & Jorgensen and Newell-Emmett are also included among these materials. Researchers who are interested in records created by Ayer in the course of operating an advertising agency will find these materials in Series fourteen-nineteen.

Series fourteen consists of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son to promote their services to potential clients.

Series fifteen are scrapbooks of some of the earliest advertisements created by the company. Series sixteen are publications. Some of the publications were created by Ayer while others were about Ayer or the advertising industry in general. Provides good background materials and puts the company in perspective. Series eighteen are the legal records. Materials relating to employees including photographs, oral histories etc. are found in series nineteen.

Series twenty is one of the smallest amounts of materials and includes information relating to the history of NW Ayer & Son.

The container lists for series one-thirteen are part of a database and are searchable. The list has been printed for the convenience of the researcher and is included in this finding aid. Series fourteen-twenty container lists are also a part of the finding aid but are not in a searchable format.

Series 1, Scrapbooks of Client Advertisements, circa 1870-1920, is arranged into three boxes by chronological date. There are two bound scrapbooks and one box of folders containing loose scrapbook pages. NW Ayer & Son compiled an assortment of their earliest ads and placed them into scrapbooks. Besides the earliest advertisements, the scrapbooks contain requests to run advertisements, reading notices and listings of papers Ayer advertised in. The early advertisements themselves range from medical remedies to jewelry to machines to clothing to education and more. Most of the advertisements in the bound scrapbooks are dated.

Series 2, Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930, NW Ayer was fond of creating scrapbooks containing proofsheets. The series contains proofsheets created between 1892 and 1930, organized into 526 boxes. For convenience of storage, access and arrangement, the scrapbooks were disassembled and the pages placed in original order in flat archival storage boxes. The proofsheets are arranged by book number rather than client name. Usually the boxes contain a listing of the clients and sometimes the dates of the advertisements to be found within the box.

Series 3, Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975, is organized into 532 oversize boxes, and contain proofsheets and tearsheets created between 1920 and 1972. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by company name (occasionally subdivided by brand or product), and thereunder chronologically by date of production. Many major, national advertisers are represented, including American Telephone & Telegraph, Armour Company, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Carrier Corporation, Domino Sugar, Caterpillar tractor company, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Hills Bros. Coffee, Ladies Home Journal, National Dairy, Plymouth (Chrysler Corporation), Steinway, TV Guide, United Airlines and the United States Army. Also contained in this series are three scrapbooks of client advertisements including Canada Dry, Ford Motor, and Victor Talking Machine.

Series 4, 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001, is organized into ninety three oversized boxes,one folder and contains proofsheets for select Ayer clients, created between 1975 and 2001. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by client name and there under chronologically by date of production. Major national advertisers represented include American Telephone & Telegraph, Avon, the United States Army, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Dupont, TV Guide, Sealtest, Kraft Foods, Gillette, General Motors, Cannon Mills.

Series 5, Billboards, circa 1952-1956, consists of mounted and un-mounted original art/mock-ups. Twenty-two pieces of original art created as mock-ups for Texaco billboards.

Series 6, Film and Video Commercials, 1967-1970,

Series 7, Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated, is arranged into eight boxes and includes radio scripts, television scripts, and story boards for commercials.

Subseries 7.1, Scripts and storyboards for Radio and Television Commercials, dates Scripts for radio and television commercials includes title, date, length of commercial, advertising agency, client information

NW Ayer's radio and television materials mainly focus on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Some of Ayer's materials relate to Bell Telephone Hours.

Storyboards are used in television and film to assist the director in working with crew to tell the story. To show the viewer through the use of figures, visual effects and camera angles. When directors first start thinking about their storyboard they create a story in their mind. They think of all the camera angles, visual effects and how the figures will interact in their mind. They try to create an extraordinary story in their head to attract the viewer (YOU) In order for the storyboard to be entirely effective it can't be a passive document. When done properly, a storyboard serves as a central design, meeting the needs of many team members including graphics artists, video personnel and programmers.

Another function of a storyboard is to help the team communicate during the training development process. This communication is very important in working with a large team as in the movie King, produced in 1996. Figures help the director explain to the crew how they are going to record the film and how to present it to the audience. Sometimes the director wants special effects to be added to the film, but his budget might not be that big so the director will have to change the story to fit their budget.

The Visual Effects are an important part in the storyboards it adds a special touch of creativity to your film. Camera angles are an important expects in your film because the camera angles determine where the viewing audience will look. If you want your audience to look at a certain object you must turn their attention to it by focusing on that object and maybe you might try blocking something out. Then you will have your audience's attention and you may do whatever else you have to, it could be scaring them are just surprising them or whatever you do.

Also included is talent information and log sheets relating to the storage of the commercials.

Bell Telephone Hour Program, 1942-[19??], The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, was a five minute musical program which began April 29, 1940 on National Broadcasting Company Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968.

Earlier shows featured James Melton and Francia White as soloists. Producer Wallace Magill restructured the format on April 27, 1942 into the "Great Artists Series" of concert and opera performers, beginning with Jascha Heifetz. Records indicate that the list of talents on the program included Marian Anderson, Helen Traubel, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Nelson Eddy, Bing Crosby, Margaret Daum, Benny Goodman, José Iturbi, Gladys Swarthout and .The series returned to radio in 1968-1969 as Bell Telephone Hour Encores, also known as Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour, featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.

National Broadcasting television specials sponsored by the Bell System, 1957-1987includes information relating to Science series, Bell system Theshold Series, Bell telephone hour and commercial and public sponsored programs

Series 8, Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989, is arranged alphabetically by the name of the client in ninety boxes and six oversize folders. Clients include Illinois Bell Telephone (1955-1989), Microswitch (1969-1989), Teletype (1975-1984), John Deere (1974-1989) and Caterpillar (1966-1972) are particularly well represented. Other clients of interest include Dr. Scholl's shoes (circa 1968-1972), the Girl Scouts (1976-1980), Sunbeam Personal Products Company (1973-1981), Bell and Howell (1974-1983) and Alberto Culver shampoos (1967-1971), Honeywell, Incorporated, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations, Kraft, Incorporated, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and YMCA.

Series 9, Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987, include printed advertisements created by this office and information relating to the employees.

Subseries 9.1, Print Advertisements, 1977-1987, printed advertisements arranged in one box alphabetically by client. There is a sparse sampling of clients from this particular Ayer branch office. The majority of the advertisements contained within this series are from Pizza Hut (1986-1987). Also included are Computer Automation (1977-1978), State of the Art, Incorporated (1982) and Toshiba (1986).

Subseries 9.2, Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s, includes cards of employees who worked in the Los Angeles office. Information on the cards includes name, address, telephone number, birthday, date hired, departure date and why (retired, terminated, resigned, etc) and position. Not all cards have all information. There is also a photograph of the employees on the cards.

Series 10, Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated, NW Ayer maintained partnerships with international companies such as Sloanas Ayer in Argentina, Connaghan & May Paton Ayer in Australia, Moussault Ayer in Belgium, NW Ayer, LTD. in Canada, GMC Ayer in France, Co-Partner Ayer in Germany, Wong Lam Wang in Hong Kong, MacHarman Ayer in New Zealand, Grupo de Diseno Ayer in Spain, Nedeby Ayer in Sweden, and Ayer Barker in United Kingdom. This group of material is a small sampling of advertisements created from these International offices. It is arranged alphabetically by client. There are quite a few automobile advertisements (i.e. Audi, Fiat, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen). In addition there are numerous advertisements for various personal items from MacLean's toothpaste to Quick athletic shoes to Labello lip balm, etc. Most of the advertisements have the creator's name printed on the advertisements.

Series 11, Cunningham & Walsh, Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated contains 98 boxes 11 folders materials from the New York advertising agency acquired by NW Ayer in the 1960s. The company began with Newel-Emmett, an agency of nine men which broke up in 1949. Two of the men Fred Walsh and Jack Cunningham formed this agency in bearing their names in 1950. The agency created "let your fingers for the walking campaign for American Telephone & Telegraph, Mother Nature for Chiffon, and Mrs. Olson for Folgers's coffee and let the good times roll for Kawasaki motorcycle. In 1986, NW Ayer Incorporated purchased Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated.

Subseries 11.1, Print Advertisements, 1915-1987, are contained in ninety eight boxes of primarily print advertisements arranged alphabetically by client name. Clients that are particularly well represented are Graybar (electrical implements, circa1926-1937), Johns-Manulle (circa1915-1971), Smith and Corono typewriters (circa 1934-1960), Sunshine Biscuit Company (circa 1925-1961), Texaco Company (circa 1936-1961), Western Electric (circa 1920- 1971) and Yellow Pages (circa 1936-1971). Cunningham and Walsh also represented several travel and tourism industry clients, including Cook Travel Services (circa 1951-1962), Italian Line (circa 1953-1961), Narragansett and Croft (circa 1956-1960) and Northwest Airlines (circa 1946-1955). There are photographs of Texaco advertisements dating from 1913-1962. There is also a scrapbook of advertisements from the Western Electric Company dating from 1920-1922.

Subseries 11.2, Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967, consist of materials created for Western Electric. Materials are arranged in chronological order.

Subseries 11.3, Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated include client lists, information relating to NW Ayer purchase and annual report 1962.

Series 12, Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, a Los Angeles advertising company, merged with Ayer in 1969. This series is housed in one box. Within the box are four scrapbooks and folders with a hodgepodge of materials relating to advertising. Of most interest are the scrapbooks. Two scrapbooks deal with Hixson and Jorgensen's self promotion ad campaign "the right appeal gets action" (1953-1957). The other two scrapbooks contain news clippings about the company and its activities (1959-1971).

Series 13, Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957, founded in 1919 and governed in the 1940s by a partnership of nine men. The partnership broke up in 1949 when the men went their separate ways. The materials consist of print advertisements for one of client, Permutit Company, a water conditioning company. The materials are arranged in one box in chronological order.

Series 14, House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991, 16 boxes consists of advertisements or self-promotion advertisements to campaign for new clients. The series is arranged chronologically by date into fifteen boxes. Within the series are two scrapbooks containing self promotion ads from 1888-1919 and 1892-1895. Numerous house ads relate to Ayer's "Human Contact" campaign. In addition to the self promotion ads, Ayer ran advertisements expounding about particular concepts or themes for example, one month the concept would "understand" while another month would be "teamwork" and yet another would be on "imagination". Some of the self promotion ads target specific groups like Philadelphia businessmen. Other advertisements incorporate the fine arts.

Series 15, Scrapbooks, 1872-1959, relates to company events, records and news clippings about Ayer's history. The six boxes are arranged by chronological date. Two of the boxes focus solely on the death of founder F.W. Ayer (1923). Another box houses a scrapbook that showcases Ayer's annual Typography Exhibition (1931-1959). One box contains a scrapbook that specifically deals with correspondences relating to Ayer's advertising. Yet another box's contents are folders of loose pages from scrapbooks that have newspaper clippings, order forms, correspondences and other company records. In one box, a bound scrapbook houses a variety of materials relating to Ayer and advertising (i.e. newspaper clippings, competitor's advertisements, NW Ayer's advertisements, correspondences for advertisements, clippings regarding the "theory of advertising."

Series 16, Publications, 1849-2006, are housed in thirty four boxes and are arranged into three main categories.

Subseries 16.1, House Publications, 1876-1994, covers diverse topics; some proscriptive works about the Ayer method in advertising, some commemorating people, anniversaries or events in the life of the agency. Materials consist of scattered issues of the employee newsletter The Next Step 1920-1921. The materials are arranged in chronological order by date of publication. Ayer in the News, The Show Windows of an Advertising Agency, 1915, book form of advertisements published on the cover of Printer's Ink, highlighting Ayer's relations with advertisers. The Story of the States, 1916, Reprint in book form of a series of articles published in Printer's Ink for the purpose of adding some pertinent fact, progressive thought and prophetic vision to the Nationalism of Advertising highlights major businesses, manufacturer, natural resources and other qualities or attractions of each state. The Book of the Golden Celebration, 1919, includes welcome address and closing remarks by founder F. Wayland Ayer, The Next Step, 1920 employee newsletter with photographs, employee profiles, in-house jokes, etc., Advertising Advertising: A Series of Fifty-two Advertisements scheduled one time a week. Twenty-seven, thirty and forty inches, a day of the week optional with publisher, 1924

Subseries 16.2, Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-2006, includes a book first published in 1939. Includes articles, documenting events and is arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Subseries 16.3, General Publications about Advertising, 1922-1974, are arranged chronologically by date of publication and relate primarily to the history of advertising.

Subseries 16.4, Publications about Other Subjects, 1948-1964, include four books about the tobacco industry primarily the history of the American Tobacco Company and Lorillard Company from the Cunningham and Walsh library.

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1, Contracts, 1885-1908, undated, are arranged alphabetically and span from 1885-1908. The majority of the contracts are with newspaper and magazine publishers from around the country.

Subseries 17.2, General client information, 1911-1999, undated, including active and cancelled lists with dates, client gains, historical client list, (should move this to series 20) Ayer Plan User Guide Strategic Planning for Human Contact, undated

Subseries 17.3, Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated, contain information used by Ayer to create advertisements for some of its clients. American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate Case History, American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate advertisement memo, commissioned artists for DeBeers advertisements, DeBeers information relating to the creative process and photography credits, a case history for DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., The Diamond Engagement Ring, Managing Communication at all levels, DuPont publications, JC Penny Marketing Communication Plan Recommendation, Leaf, Incorporated, Saturn presentation, and USAREC oral presentation.

Subseries 17.4, Potential Clients, 1993, includes grouping has a questionnaire sent to Ayer by a potential client. Questionnaire response for Prudential Securities, 1993 Prudential Securities advertising account review, 1993.

Subseries 17.5, Financial Records, 1929-1938, includes balance sheet, 1929 May 1 Balance sheet and adjustments Consolidated statement of assets and liabilities, Expenses 191936-37 Business review and expenses, 1937 and 1938 Business review and expenses comparative statement, 1937 and 1938.

Series 18, Legal Records, circa 1911-1982, Ayer's legal records are arranged by twelve subject groupings within four boxes. The twelve groupings are advertising service agreements (circa 1918-1982), bylaws, copyright claims, correspondences, international correspondences, dissolution of trusts, stock information, agreements between partners, incorporation materials, reduction of capital, property information and miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the materials are the advertising service agreements. These agreements are between Ayer and their clients and state the services Ayer will offer and at what cost. The bylaws are Ayer's company bylaws from 1969 and 1972. The copyright claims are certificates stating Ayer's ownership over certain published materials (i.e. "Policy", Media Equalizer Model, and Don Newman's Washington Square Experiment). The correspondences relate to either the voting trust and receipts for agreement or the New York Corporation. The international correspondences are from either Ayer's Canadian office or London office. The dissolutions of trusts contains materials about the dividend trust of Wilfred F. Fry, the investment trust of Winfred W. Fry, the voting trust, and the New York corporation. The stock information has stock certificates and capital stock information. The agreements between partners (1911-1916) specify the terms between F.W. Ayer and his partners. The incorporation materials (circa 1929-1977) deal with Ayer advertising agency becoming incorporated in the state of Delaware. The reduction of capital grouping is a notification that shares of stock have been retired. The property information grouping contains property deeds and insurance policy (circa 1921-1939), a property appraisal (1934), and a bill of sale (1948). The miscellaneous grouping contains a house memo regarding a set of board meeting minutes and a registry of foreign companies in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1929-1954).

Subseries 18.1, Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2, Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4, Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5, International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6, Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7, Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8, Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9, Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10, Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11, Property Information, 1921-1948

Subseries 18.12, Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19, Personnel Records, circa 1889-2001, are arranged into eight groupings within eight boxes. The groupings are employee card files, photographs, Ayer alumni, biographies, speeches, recollections, oral histories, and miscellaneous. Typed manuscript of book A Copy Writer Speaks by George Cecil, NW Ayer, Incorporated copy head 1920s-1950s

Subseries 19.1, Employee card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963, consists of index cards with the name, age, job title, date and wage increases, date of hire/fire, as well as remarks about the employee's service and/or reasons for seeking or leaving the job. Materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the employee within three boxes.

Subseries 19.2, Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated, are housed in two boxes. The photographs grouped together by subjects i.e. personnel, company events, Ayer buildings, and miscellaneous. This grouping primarily consists of personnel photographs. Includes a glass plate negative dated 1924 of NW Ayer.

Subseries 19.3, Ayer Alumni, circa 1989-98, include employees who have left Ayer. There is a listing of Ayer "graduates" and their current job. Emeritus, Ayer's alumni newsletter 1989-1996, makes up the majority of materials in this grouping. The newsletter keeps the alumni up to date with the happenings of Ayer and what has become of former Ayer employees. Emeritus is a quarterly newsletter devoted to the activities, thoughts and feelings of Ayer alumni a body of people who consists of retirees and former employees.

Subseries 19.4, Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994, undated, prominent members of Ayer's operations had biographical sketches completed of them. This was true for the bio sketches of Robert Ervin, Louis T. Hagopian, and George A. Rink. There is a substantial file on Dorothy Dignam ("Mis Dig"), a leading woman in the advertising world from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also of interest is a video ("The Siano Man") compiled by Ayer employees to commemorate Jerry Siano's retirement from Ayer in 1994. The series is arranged alphabetically by last name.

Subseries 19.5, Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975, contains speeches made by Wilfred W. Fry and Neal W. O'Connor. Wilfred W. Fry had various speaking engagements connected with Ayer. Contained in this group is a sampling of his speeches from 1919 to 1931. Neal O'Connor's speech "Advertising: Who Says It's a Young People's Business" was given at the Central Region Convention for the American Association of Advertising Agencies in Chicago on November 6, 1975. The speeches are arranged alphabetically by the speaker's last name.

Subseries 19.6, Recollections, 1954-1984, undated, are arranged alphabetically by last name. These are recollections from Ayer employees about the company and its advertisements. Some recollections are specifically about certain types of advertisements, like farm equipment while others reflect on F. W. Ayer and the company.

Subseries 19.7, Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991, include interviews with key NW Ayer personnel, conducted by Ayer alumnae Howard Davis, Brad Lynch and Don Sholl (Vice President creative) for the Oral History Program. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.8, Oral History Interview Audio Tapes, 1985-1990, include interviews on audiotape the materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.9, Internal Communications, 1993-1999, includes information sent to employees relating to retirements, management changes, awards won by the company, promotions, potential new accounts, free items, grand opening of Ayer Café, donation events, sponsorship programs, holiday schedules, discounts for employees from clients, Ayer joins MacManus Group.

Subseries 19.10, General Materials, 1940; 1970, includes agency directory entry including a list of the employees, 1970s, annual banquet program for the Curfew Club May 22, 1940 a group formed by the Philadelphia employee in 1938. It sponsored numerous sports, social and educational activities. Groups were formed in public speaking, music appreciation and a series of talks on Monday evenings title the modern woman. The front page was a series of talks for general interest. A list of officers, 1991, Twenty five year club membership, 1973 December 1, List of NW Ayer graduates, 1970, List of Officers, 1991 May 31, Obituary for Leo Lionni, 1999 October 17, List of photographers of advertisements, 2001

Series 20, Background and History Information, 1817-1999, undated includes a chronology, 1817-1990, quick reference timeline, 1848-1923, loose pages from a scrapbook containing examples of correspondence, envelopes, advertisements dating from 1875-1878; slogans coined by NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1899-1990, history of management, 1909-1923, articles and photographs about the building and art galleries, 1926-1976, publications about the Philadelphia building, 1929, pamphlet relating to memories of NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1930s-1950s, television history, 1940-1948, Article about the history of the company, 1950 January, pocket guide, 1982, AdWeek reports about standings for advertising agencies, information relating to Human Contact which is NW Ayer's Information relating to Human Contact, undated which is their philosophy on advertising.

Series 21, Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated, consists of print advertisements collected by Ayer from other major advertising companies. The companies include Doyle Dane Bernback, Incorporated, Leo Burnett Company, Grey Advertising Agency, D'Arcy Ad Agency, Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Incorporated and Erwin Wasey Company. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order by client and include products from Ralston Purina and Van Camp (Chicken of the Sea), Kellogg, American Export Lines and No Nonsense Fashions.

Series 22, 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1999, undated, includes material given to the Archives Center in 2010. It is organized into seventy one oversized boxes and contains proofsheets of print advertisements for select Ayer clients. These are arranged alphabetically by client name and include substantial quantities of materials from American Telephone &Telegraph (1945-1996), Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (1967-1987), Carrier (1971-1981), Citibank (1973-1991), DeBeers (1940s-1960s and1990s), Electric Companies Advertising Program [ECAP] (1942-1970s), General Motors (1989-1998), J.C. Penney (1983-1986), Newsweek (1966-1975), and Proctor and Gamble (1980s-1890s). There are also numerous other clients represented by smaller quantities of materials.

Subseries 22.1, Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2, Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated, include Cannon towels, Cheny Brothers silks, Cornish & Company organs and pianos, Enterprise Manufacturing Company, 1879 sad iron, an ad from Harper's Weekly 1881 for ladies clothing, Ostermoor & Company mattresses, Pear's soap, Porter's cough balsam, Steinway pianos.

Series 23, Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985, consists of three boxes of printed advertisements for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Some of the same advertisements might also be found in series two, three and four.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into twenty-three series.

Series 1: Scrapbooks of Client Print Advertisements, circa 1870-1920

Series 2: Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930

Series 3: Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975

Series 4: 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001

Series 5: Billboards, circa 1952-1956

Series 6: Audiovisual Materials

Series 7: Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated

Series 8: Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989

Series 9: Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987

Subseries 9.1: Printed Advertisements, 1977-1987

Subseries 9.2: Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s

Series 10: Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated

Series 11: Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated

Subseries 11.1: Printed Advertisements, 1915-1987

Subseries 11.2: Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967

Subseries 11.3: Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated

Series 12: Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, undated

Series 13: Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957

Series 14: House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991

Series 15: Scrapbooks, 1872-1959

Series 16: Publications, 1849-2006

Subseries 16.1: House Publications, 1876-1994

Subseries 16.2: Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-1995

Subseries 16.3: General Publications about Advertising, 1922-2006

Subseries 16.4: Publications about other Subjects, 1948-1964

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1: Contracts, 1885-1908, undated

Subseries 17.2: General Client Information, 1911-1999, undated

Subseries 17.3: Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated

Subseries 17.4: Potential Clients, 1993

Subseries 17.5: Financial Records, 1929-1938

Series 18: Legal Records, circa 1911-1984

Subseries 18.1: Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2: Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4: Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5: International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6: Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7: Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8: Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9: Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10: Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11: Property Information

Subseries 18.12: Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19: Employee Materials, circa 1889-2001

Subseries 19.1: Employee Card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963

Subseries 19.2: Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated

Subseries 19.3: Alumni Publications, circa 1989-1998

Subseries 19.4: Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994

Subseries 19.5: Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975

Subseries 19.6: Recollections, 1954-1984, undated

Subseries 19.7: Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991

Subseries 19.8: Oral History Audiotapes, 1985-1990

Subseries 19.9: Internal Communications, 1993-1999

Subseries 19.1: General Materials, 1940-2001

Series 20: History and Background Information about the Company, 1817-1999, undated

Series 21: Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated

Series 22: 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1990s, undated

Subseries 22.1: Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2: Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated

Series 23: Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985

Biographical / Historical:

Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, NW Ayer & Son is one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in America. For most of its history, it was the undisputed leader and innovator in the field of advertising. In 1876, NW Ayer & Son pioneered the "open contract", a revolutionary change in the method of billing for advertising which became the industry standard for the next hundred years. NW Ayer pioneered the use of fine art in advertising and established the industry's first art department. It was the first agency to use a full-time copywriter and the first to institute a copy department. The agency relocated to New York City in 1974. During its long history, the agency's clients included many "blue-chip" clients, including American Telephone & Telegraph, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Ford Motor Company, Nabisco, R. J. Reynolds and United Airlines. However, in later years, the Ayer's inherent conservatism left the agency vulnerable to the creative revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the advertising industry restructuring of the 1980s and the economic recession of the early 1990s. The agency was bought out by a Korean investor in 1993. In 1996, NW Ayer merged with another struggling top twenty United States advertising agency, Darcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, under the umbrella of the McManus Group. Ayer continues to operate as a separate, full-service agency.

Through a series of buyouts and mergers, Ayer traces its lineage to the first advertising agency founded in the United States, a Philadelphia agency begun by Volney Palmer in 1841. Palmer began his career in advertising as a newspaper agent, acting as middleman between newspaper publishers and advertisers across the country. By 1849, Palmer had founded his own newspaper, V. B. Palmer's Register and Spirit of the Press, and had developed a complete system of advertising which included securing advertising space and placing ads in scores of commercial, political, religious, scientific and agricultural journals across the country. Palmer went one step further than the "space jobbers" of the day when he began offering "advertisements carefully drawn for those who have not the time to prepare an original copy." Always an enthusiastic promoter of advertising as an incentive to trade and American economic growth, Palmer promised advertisers that "every dollar paid for advertising in country newspapers will pay back twenty-fold" and encouraged skeptical consumers that "he who wishes to buy cheap should buy of those who advertise." When Palmer died in 1863, the agency was bought by his bookkeeper, John Joy, who joined with another Philadelphia advertising agency to form Joy, Coe & Sharpe. That agency was bought out again in 1868 and renamed Coe, Wetherill & Company. In 1877, Coe, Wetherill and Company was bought out by the newly formed NW Ayer & Son.

Francis Wayland Ayer was an ambitious young schoolteacher with an entrepreneurial streak. Having worked for a year soliciting advertisements on a commission basis for the publisher of the National Baptist weekly, Francis Ayer saw the potential to turn a profit as an advertising agent. In 1869, Ayer persuaded his father, Nathan Wheeler Ayer, to join him in business, and with an initial investment of only $250.00, NW Ayer & Son was born. Notwithstanding a smallpox epidemic in Philadelphia in 1871 and the general economic depression of the early 1870s, the agency flourished. The senior Ayer died in 1873, leaving his interest in the agency to his wife, but Francis W. Ayer bought her out, consolidating his interest in the company's management. In 1877, with Coe, Wetherill & Company (the successor to Palmer's 1841 agency) on the verge of bankruptcy and heavily indebted to Ayer for advertising it had placed in Ayer publications, Ayer assumed ownership of that agency. Thus did NW Ayer lay claim to being the oldest advertising agency in the country.

Both Nathan Wheeler and Francis Wayland Ayer began their careers as schoolteachers, and one of their legacies was a commitment to the cause of education: correspondence schools and institutions of higher learning were historically well-represented among Ayer clients. Just after World War I, the agency was heralded as "co-founder of more schools than any citizen of this country" for its conspicuous efforts to advertise private schools. Well into the 1960s, an "Education Department" at Ayer prepared advertisements for over three hundred private schools, camps and colleges, representing almost half the regional and national advertising done for such institutions. In fact, to its clients Ayer presented advertising itself as being akin to a system of education. In 1886, Ayer began promoting the virtues of the Ayer way advertising with the slogan, "Keeping Everlastingly at It Brings Success."

The agency's goals were simple: "to make advertising pay the advertiser, to spend the advertiser's money as though it were our own, to develop, magnify and dignify advertising as a business." Initially, Ayer's fortunes were tied to newspapers, and the agency began to make a name for itself as compiler and publisher of a widely used American Newspaper Annual. During the first years, Ayer's singular goal was "to get business, place it [in newspapers] and get money for it"; after several years as an independent space broker, however, Francis Ayer resolved "not to be an order taker any longer." This decision led NW Ayer and Son to a change in its mode of conducting business which would revolutionize the advertising industry: in 1876, Ayer pioneered the "open contract" with Diggee & Conard, Philadelphia raised growers and agricultural suppliers. Prior to the open contract, NW Ayer & Sons and most agencies operated as "space-jobbers," independent wholesalers of advertising space, in which the opportunities for graft and corrupt practices were virtually unlimited. In contrast, the open contract, wherein the advertiser paid a fixed commission based on the volume of advertising placed, aligned the advertising agent firmly on the side of the advertiser and gave advertisers access to the actual rates charged by newspapers and religious journals. The open contract with a fixed commission has been hailed by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker as one of the "three great landmarks in advertising history." (The other two were Lasker's own development of "reason-why" advertising copy and J. Walter Thompson's pioneering of sex appeal in an advertisement for Woodbury's soap.) Although the transition to the open contract did not happen overnight, by 1884, nearly three-quarters of Ayer's advertising billings were on an open contract basis. Since Ayer was, by the 1890s, the largest agency in America, the switch to direct payment by advertisers had a significant impact on the advertising industry, as other agencies were forced to respond to Ayer's higher standard. Just as important, the open contract helped to establish N W Ayer's long-standing reputation for "clean ethics and fair dealing" -- a reputation the agency has guarded jealously for over a century. The open contract also helped to establish Ayer as a full service advertising agency and to regularize the production of advertising in-house. From that point forward, Ayer routinely offered advice and service beyond the mere placement of advertisements. Ayer set another milestone for the industry in 1888, when Jarvis Wood was hired as the industry's first full-time copywriter. Wood was joined by a second full time copywriter four years later, and the Copy Department was formally established in 1900. The industry's first Art Department grew out of the Copy Department when Ayer hired its first commercial artist to assist with copy preparation in 1898; twelve years later Ayer became the first agency to offer the services of a full time art director, whose sole responsibility was the design and illustration of ads.

Ayer's leadership in the use of fine art in advertising has roots in this period, but achieved its highest expression under the guidance of legendary art director Charles Coiner. Coiner joined Ayer in 1924, after graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Despite early resistance from some clients, Coiner was adamant that "the use of outstanding palette and original art forms bring a greater return in readership, in impact and prestige for the advertiser." To this end, Coiner marshaled the talents of notable painters, illustrators and photographers, including N.C. Wyeth and Rockwell Kent (Steinway), Georgia O'Keefe (Dole), Leo Lionni (DuPont), Edward Steichen (Steinway, Cannon Mills), Charles Sheeler (Ford), and Irving Penn (DeBeers). Coiner believed that there was a practical side to the use of fine art in advertising, and his success (and Ayer's) lay in the marriage of research and copywriting with fine art, an arrangement Coiner termed "art for business sake." Coiner's efforts won both awards and attention for a series completed in the 1950s for the Container Corporation of America. Titled "Great Ideas of Western Man" the campaign featured abstract and modern paintings and sculpture by leading U.S. and foreign artists, linked with Western philosophical writings in an early example of advertising designed primarily to bolster corporate image. In 1994, Charles Coiner was posthumously named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Fame, the first full time art director ever chosen for that honor.

Coiner and fellow art director Paul Darrow also created legendary advertising with the "A Diamond Is Forever" campaign for DeBeers; ads featured the work of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and other modernist painters. The "A Diamond is Forever" tagline was written in 1949 by Frances Gerety, a woman copywriter at Ayer from 1943 to 1970. In 1999, Ad Age magazine cited "A Diamond is Forever" as the most memorable advertising slogan of the twentieth century.

Coiner also earned respect for his volunteer government service during World War II; he designed the armbands for civil defense volunteers and logos for the National Recovery Administration and Community Chest. As a founding member of the Advertising Council in 1945, Ayer has had a long-standing commitment to public service advertising. In the mid-1980s, Ayer became a leading force in the Reagan-era "War on Drugs". Lou Hagopian, Ayer's sixth CEO, brokered the establishment of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a media coalition which generated as much as a million dollars a day in donated advertising space and time to prevent the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Famous names appear among NW Ayer's clientele from the very earliest days of the agency. Retailer John Wanamaker, Jay Cooke and Company, and Montgomery Ward's mail-order business were among the first Ayer clients. The agency has represented at least twenty automobile manufacturers, including Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Plymouth, and Rolls-Royce. Other major, long-term clients through the years have included American Telephone & Telegraph, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Kellogg's, R. J. Reynolds, Steinway and Sons, United Airlines, and the United States Army. By the time of Ayer's hundredth anniversary in 1969, some of these companies had been Ayer clients for decades if not generations, and the longevity of those relationships was for many years a source of Ayer's strength.

But the advertising industry began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s, due in part to a "creative revolution." Small advertising agencies won attention with provocative copywriting and art direction that more closely resembled art than advertising. Advances in market research allowed clients to more narrowly tailor their advertising messages to distinct groups of consumers, and this led to a rise in targeted marketing which could more readily be doled out to specialized small agencies than to larger, established firms like NW Ayer & Son. The civil rights and anti-war movements also contributed to increasing public skepticism with the values of corporate America, and by extension, with some national advertising campaigns. Older, more conservative firms like Ayer were hard pressed to meet these new challenges.

About 1970, in an effort to meet these challenges and to establish a foothold on the West Coast, Ayer bought out two smaller agencies--Hixson & Jorgenson (Los Angeles) and Frederick E. Baker (Seattle). The agency relocated from Philadelphia to New York City in 1974 in an attempt both to consolidate operations (Ayer had operated a New York office since the 1920s) and to be closer to the historic center of the advertising industry. Riding the wave of mergers that characterized the advertising industry in the late 1980s and 1990s, Ayer continued to grow through the acquisition of Cunningham & Walsh in 1986 and Rink Wells in 19xx.

During this transitional period, Ayer received widespread acclaim for its work for the United States Army, which included the widely recognized slogan "Be All You Can Be". Ayer first acquired the Army recruitment account in 1967 and with help from its direct marketing arm, the agency was widely credited with helping the Army reach its recruitment goals despite an unpopular war and plummeting enlistments after the elimination of the draft in 1973. Ayer held the account for two decades, from the Vietnam War through the Cold War, but lost the account in 1986 amid government charges that an Ayer employee assigned to the account accepted kickbacks from a New York film production house. Despite Ayer's position as the country's 18th largest agency (with billings of $880 million in 1985), the loss of the agency's second largest account hit hard.

NW Ayer made up for the loss of the $100 million dollar a year Army account and made headlines for being on the winning end of the largest account switch in advertising history to date, when fast food giant Burger King moved its $200 million dollar advertising account from arch-rival J. Walter Thompson in 1987. Burger King must have had drive-thru service in mind, however, and Ayer made headlines again when it lost the account just eighteen months later in another record-breaking account switch. Another devastating blow to the agency was the loss of its lead position on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Ayer pioneered telecommunications advertising in 1908, when the agency was selected to craft advertising for the Bell System's universal telephone service. Despite valiant efforts to keep an account the agency had held for most of the twentieth century, and for which they had written such memorable corporate slogans as American Telephone &Telegraph "The Voice with a Smile" and "Reach Out and Touch Someone", the agency lost the account in 1996.

After a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1980s, the economic recession of the early 1990s hit Madison Avenue hard, and Ayer was particularly vulnerable. Despite the agency's long history and roster of "blue-chip" clients, Ayer was not known for cutting-edge creative work. Moreover, though the agency had offices overseas, Ayer had never built a strong multinational presence, and many of the smaller international offices were sold during the financial turmoil of the 1980s. This left a real void in the new climate of global marketplace consolidation. By about 1990, earnings were declining (although Ayer was still among the top twenty United States agencies in billings), and the agency was suffering from client defections, high management turnover, expensive real estate commitments and deferred executive compensation deals, all fallout of the high-flying 1980s. This was the atmosphere in 1993, when W.Y. Choi, a Korean investor who had already assembled a media and marketing empire in his homeland, began looking for an American partner to form an international advertising network. Jerry Siano, the former creative director who had recently been named Ayer's seventh CEO, was in no position to refuse Choi's offer of $35 million to buy the now floundering agency. The infusion of cash was no magic bullet, however. Choi took a wait-and-see approach, allowing his partner Richard Humphreys to make key decisions about Ayer's future, including the purging of senior executives and the installation of two new CEOs in as many years.

The agency's downward trend continued with the loss of another longtime client, the DeBeers diamond cartel in 1995. Adweek reported that Ayer's billings fell from $892 million in 1990 to less than $850 million in 1995. Several top executives defected abruptly, and the agency failed to attract major new accounts. Ayer was facing the loss not merely of revenue and personnel, but the loss of much of the respect it once commanded. Ayer remained among the twenty largest U.S. agencies, but an aura of uncertainty hung over the agency like a cloud. A new CEO was appointed, and Mary Lou Quinlan became the agency's first woman CEO in 1995. A year later, Ayer and another struggling top twenty agency, D'arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, combined as part of the McManus Group of companies. In 1998, the McManus Group had worldwide billings of more than $6.5 billion.

Under the McManus Group, Ayer was able to expand its international operations and begin to rebuild a stronger global presence. Several important new clients were won in 1997 and 1998, including Avon, General Motors, Kitchenaid, several Procter & Gamble brands and, most notably, Continental Airlines worldwide accounts. Born in the nineteenth century, Ayer may be one of a very few advertising agencies to successfully weather the economic and cultural transitions of both the twentieth and twentieth first centuries. Ayer was eventually acquired by the Publicis Groupe based in Paris, France which closed down the N.W. Ayer offices in 2002.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)

Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated Records (AC0395)

Provenance:

The collection was donated by N W Ayer ABH International, April 15, 1975 and by Ayer & Partners, October 30, 1996.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: reproduction fees may apply. Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. All duplication requests must be reviewed and approved by Archives Center staff. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies.

Topic:

Advertising agencies  Search this

advertising  Search this

Genre/Form:

Business records -- 1840-2000

Interviews -- 1980-2000

Oral history -- 1980-1990

Print advertising

Proof sheets

Proofs (printed matter)

Scrapbooks -- 1840-1990

Trade literature

Tear sheets

Advertisements

Citation:

NW Ayer & Sons, incorporated Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0059

See more items in:

N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0059

Creator:

Warner, Keith, 1895-1959  Search this

Names:

"291" (Gallery)  Search this

American Place (Gallery)  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Dorcely, Roland  Search this

Macdonald-Wright, Stanton, 1890-1973  Search this

Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this

Mondrian, Piet, 1872-1944  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Rosenburg, Paul  Search this

Russell, Morgan, 1886-1953  Search this

Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946  Search this

Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this

Extent:

0.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Illustrated letters

Sketches

Date:

1935-1975

Summary:

The papers of American art collector Keith Warner measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1975. Correspondence, collecting files, and artwork detail Warner's role as a collector of art in the mid-twentieth century. Present in the collection are materials related to Alexander Calder, Roland Dorcely, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Piet Mondrian, Alfred Stieglitz, and Max Weber.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of American art collector Keith Warner measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1975. Correspondence, collecting files, and artwork detail Warner's role as a collector of art in the mid-twentieth century. Present in the collection are materials related to Alexander Calder, Roland Dorcely, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Piet Mondrian, Alfred Stieglitz, and Max Weber.

Warner's relationships with artists are documented in extensive letters which make up the bulk of the collection. Subjects range from exhibitions, the art market, artists' methods and works, art criticism, and collecting to personal subjects. Letters from Roland Dorcely and Alexander Calder include illustrated letters and postcards. Letters from Calder discuss a mix of business and personal matters, including a discussion of the design of jewelry commissioned for Warner's wife, Edna. Letters from Dorcely document Warner's cultivation, criticism, and collection of Dorcely's work, as well as the hardships of Haitian artists and Dorcely's views on art. The letters are in French with some English translations.

Correspondence with Alfred Stieglitz documents his common endeavor with Warner in collecting the paintings of John Marin, and Stieglitz's gallery, An American Place. Letters associated with An American Place continue after Stieglitz's death in 1946. Found with Alfred Stieglitz's letters are two letters from Georgia O'Keeffe. Max Weber letters include comments on his painting and sculpting, his retrospective show at the Whitney, the art press, national politics, and also refer to Stieglitz and Marin. An extensive group of correspondence with Stanton MacDonald-Wright is mostly undated; MacDonald-Wright writes freely about Stieglitz, the "291" group of artists, and his partner in Synchromism, Morgan Russell. Also included are letters from Piet Mondrian related to collecting, as well as letters from unidentified correspondents.

Warner's collecting files consist of diverse materials concerning his research, writing, and relationships with artists whose paintings he collected, particularly Roland Dorcely and Stanton MacDonald-Wright. Included are biographical sketches; writings about and by the artists, including manuscripts and published materials; newspaper and magazine clippings; exhibition announcements and catalogs; and photographs of works of art. Writings by Roland Dorcely, on the subject of his artistic process and perspective, include handwritten essays in French as well as typed English translations. Published articles from Script magazine (1945-1946) by Stanton MacDonald-Wright document his career as an art critic. Writings on Alexander Calder and Paul Rosenburg, taken from Warner's journal on Calder, and on the early relationship of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, documented on a visit with Stieglitz on May 3, 1944, are also present.

Artwork consists of work by Alexander Calder and Roland Dorcely. Calder's work includes sketches proposing mobiles with notations as to material, scale, and cost. Dorcely's work includes sketches in graphite and ink of abstract figures and objects.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 3 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1940-1963 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1-2)

Series 2: Collecting Files, circa 1940-1975 (12 folders; Box 2, OV 3)

Series 3: Artwork, circa 1945-circa 1965 (2 folders; Box 2)

Biographical / Historical:

Keith Warner (1895-1959) was an American art collector. Warner was born and lived in Gloversville, New York, and maintained a manufacturing business that took him to New York City intermittently. Warner began collecting Chinese porcelains after World War I, and a few years later his interest shifted to American abstract painting. Warner retired from business in 1944. His collection was sold gradually after his death, mostly to private collectors, though some works are in museums in the United States and Japan.

Provenance:

The Keith Warner papers were donated in 1992 by Edna K. Allen, wife of Keith Warner.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Rights:

The Keith Warner papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Topic:

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State)  Search this

Artists -- United States  Search this

Art -- Haiti  Search this

Art, Abstract -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art criticism  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Synchromism (Art)  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Illustrated letters

Sketches

Citation:

Keith Warner papers, 1935-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.warnkeit

See more items in:

Keith Warner papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-warnkeit

Interviewee:

Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965  Search this

Interviewer:

Cowdrey, Mary Bartlett, 1910-1974  Search this

Lerner, Abram, first director and curator  Search this

Names:

"291" (Gallery)  Search this

Armory Show (1913: New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Society of Independent Artists (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Bliss, Lizzie P. (Lizzie Plummer), 1864-1931  Search this

Boswell, Peyton, 1904-  Search this

Chase, William Merritt, 1849-1916  Search this

Cox, Kenyon, 1856-1919  Search this

Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906  Search this

Davies, Arthur B. (Arthur Bowen), 1862-1928  Search this

Duncan, Isadora, 1877-1927  Search this

Epstein, Jacob, Sir, 1880-1959  Search this

Hassam, Childe, 1859-1935  Search this

Kuhn, Walt, 1877-1949  Search this

Monet, Claude, 1840-1926  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Pach, Walter, 1883-1958  Search this

Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this

Extent:

66 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Date:

1958 December 8-22

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Abraham Walkowitz conducted by Abram Lerner and Mary Bartlett Cowdrey for the Archives of American Art.

Walkowitz discusses his childhood and schooling; travelling abroad; influence of Claude Monet exhibit; his book, "Artists of Walkowitz: 100 Portraits"; Paul Cezanne's death; meeting artists in Europe; his 1908 exhibition of modern art at the Julius Haas Gallery, New York; getting Max Weber a show at the Haas Gallery; Steiglitz and his "291" Gallery; the Armory Show, especially the roles of Arthur B. Davies, Walt Kuhn, and Walter Pach; reactions to Nude Descending a Staircase; the Society of Independent Artists; thoughts on criticism of his work; his relationship with the critic Peyton Boswell; the importance in his work of dancer Isadora Duncan; opinions on American art, modern art, art schools, students and patrons; good art versus bad art; and the role of critics. Among others he recalls are Lizzie Bliss, William Merritt Chase, Kenyon Cox, The Eight, Jacob Epstein, Childe Hassam, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Biographical / Historical:

Abraham Walkowitz (1880-1965) was a painter in New York, New York.

General:

Sound has been lost on tape reels; reels discarded.

Provenance:

This interview is part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.

Restrictions:

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Occupation:

Art critics  Search this

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Eight (Group of American artists)  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Identifier:

AAA.walkow58

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-walkow58

Creator:

Schmid, Elsa, 1897-  Search this

Names:

Albers, Josef  Search this

Anrep, Boris, 1883-1969  Search this

Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1902-1981  Search this

Brooks, Van Wyck, 1886-1963  Search this

Chase, Helen  Search this

D'Arcy, Martin Cyril, 1888-1976  Search this

Dewey, John, 1859-1952  Search this

Forbes, Edward Waldo, 1873-1969  Search this

Kelekian, Dikran, 1868-1951  Search this

Morgan, Barbara Brooks, 1900-1992  Search this

Neumann, J. B. (Jsrael Ber)  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Poor, Henry Varnum, 1887-1970  Search this

Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965  Search this

Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this

Wheelock, Warren, 1880-1960  Search this

Extent:

1.1 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 1 reel))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

1910-1967

Scope and Contents:

Personal and professional correspondence, files on artists, photographs, works of art, notes and lecture material, and printed material relating to Elsa Schmid's career as a mosaic artist.

Correspondents include Henry Varnum Poor, Max Weber, Boris Anrep, Helen Chase, Edward Waldo Forbes, Warren Wheelock, Abraham Walkowitz, Alfred H. Barr, Georgia O'Keeffe, Barbara Morgan and Josef Albers. Files are on artists Van Wyck Brooks, Father Martin D'Arcy, John Dewey, and Dikran Kelekian.

Photographs are of Schmid's mosaics. Works of art include drawings of mosaics. Printed materials includes newspaper clippings, magazine articles and catalogs.

Biographical / Historical:

Mosaicist, painter, sculptor; Rye, N.Y. Married to art dealer J. B. Neumann.

Provenance:

Donated 1974 by Peter Neumann, Schmid's son. Two additional mosaic transpsarencies of Abraham Lincoln received in 2010 as a transfer from the Musem of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Occupation:

Mosaicists -- New York (State)  Search this

Painters -- New York (State)  Search this

Sculptors -- New York (State)  Search this

Topic:

Mosaics -- 20th century -- New York (State)  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- History -- New York (State)  Search this

Women artists  Search this

Identifier:

AAA.schmelsa

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-schmelsa

Creator:

Marshall, Richard, 1947-2014  Search this

Names:

Lever House (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 1960-1988  Search this

Bourgeois, Louise, 1911-2010  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Mapplethorpe, Robert  Search this

Mitchell, Joan, 1926-1992  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Pierson, Jack, 1960-  Search this

Ruscha, Edward  Search this

Extent:

15.8 Linear feet

26.07 Gigabytes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Gigabytes

Interviews

Sound recordings

Photographs

Video recordings

Date:

1969-2014

Summary:

The papers of New York-based curator and art consultant Richard D. Marshall measure 15.8 linear feet and 26.07 GB and date from 1969-2014. The interviews, exhibitions and research files, client files, other professional files, printed material, photographic material of artwork, and born-digital material primarily reflect Marshall's work outside his role at the Whitney Museum. The exhibition and research files make up the bulk of the collection and document his independent curatorial and writing projects on artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jack Pierson, and Ed Ruscha, as well as his role in building the Lever House Art Collection. Sound and video recordings are also found in the collection, primarily with interviews and exhibition and research material.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of New York-based curator and art consultant Richard D. Marshall measure 15.8 linear feet and 26.07 GB and date from 1969-2014. The interviews, exhibitions and research files, client files, other professional files, printed material, photographic material of artwork, and digital material predominantly reflect Marshall's work outside his role at the Whitney Museum. Sound and video recordings are also found in the collection, primarily with interviews and exhibition and research material.

Thirteen interviews with artists are in the form of transcripts and sound recordings. Interviews are with many artists that Marshall had organized exhibitions for, including Louise Bourgeois, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ed Ruscha, and many featured in the exhibition New Image Painting at the Whitney in 1978.

Exhibition and research files may contain correspondence with artists, galleries, and museums; writings and notes; printed and research material; press packages; photographic material; and administrative documentation related to exhibition logistics, such as floors plans, items lists, consignment records, and shipping receipts. The most robust files and groups of files relate to the artists that Marshall worked with repeatedly over the course of his career, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Robert Mapplethorpe, Joan Mitchell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jack Pierson, and Ed Ruscha. Files relating to the Lever House Art Collection are also found here. The series contains sound and video recordings, as well as digital records containing broadcasts, documentaries, exhibition related material, writings, photographic material, and promotional material about artists from galleries.

Client files include correspondence, invoices, photographic material, floor plans, digital records, and other documentation related to Marshall's business as an independent art consultant.

Other professional files consists of business cards, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) Board of Trustee's files, and photographic material Marshall accumulated as art editor of the Paris Review.

Printed and digital material consists of books, exhibition announcements, catalogs, press packages, posters, and other material. Material relates to artists and movements Marshall was interested in.

Photographic material is of artworks and is largely unsorted and not identified with any specific project. Formats include black and white photographs, slides, digital photographs, and transparencies.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as seven series

Series 1: Interviews, 1972-2009 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1, 0.173 GB; ER01)

Series 2: Exhibition and Research Files, circa 1970-2014 (11.5 linear feet; Box 1-12, OV 17-19, 23.40 GB; ER02-ER49)

Series 3: Client Files, 1998-2014 (1.5 linear feet; Box 12-14, 0.077 GB; ER50-ER51)

Series 4: Other Professional Files, circa 1980-2014 (0.9 linear feet; Box 14)

Series 5: Printed Material, 1969-2014 (0.5 linear feet; Box 15, OV 20, 2.27 GB; ER52)

Series 6: Photographic Material, 1990s-2000s (0.9 linear feet; Box 15-16, 0.145 GB; ER53)

Series 7: Unidentified Electronic Records, circa 2005 (1 folder; 1 folder)

Biographical / Historical:

Richard D. Marshall (1947-2014) was a New York-based curator and art consultant. Born in Los Angeles, Marshall attended the University of California, Irvine, and in 1973 moved to New York to attend the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum. He then became a curator at the Whitney from 1974-1993, organizing many biennials and solo exhibitions. While at the Whitney, Marshall also worked as art editor of the Paris Review (1975-1990), and organized exhibitions at other institutions of artists including Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, and Robert Mapplethorpe. In 2003, he became curator of The Lever House Art Collection in New York, and worked with collectors Aby Rosen and Alberto Mugrabi to commission works for the lobby of the building by Tom Sachs, Urs Fischer, Liza Lou, Paula Hayes, and others. Marshall has also published monographs on Ed Ruscha, Jack Pierson, Alex Katz, Georgie O'Keeffe, Joan Mitchell, and Kenny Scharf.

Provenance:

Donated in 2015 by the Richard D. Marshall Estate, via William T. Georgis, executor.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.

Rights:

The Richard D. Marshall papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Occupation:

Art consultants -- New York -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Transcripts  Search this

Curators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Photographs

Video recordings

Citation:

Richard D. Marshall papers, 1969-2014. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.marsrich

See more items in:

Richard D. Marshall papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-marsrich

Creator:

Liebman, Aline Meyer, 1879-1966  Search this

Names:

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984  Search this

Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975  Search this

Bluemner, Oscar, 1867-1938  Search this

Borglum, Gutzon, 1867-1941  Search this

Lachaise, Gaston, 1882-1935  Search this

Macdonald-Wright, Stanton, 1890-1973  Search this

Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946  Search this

Strand, Paul, 1890-1976  Search this

Weston, Edward, 1886-1958  Search this

Extent:

1.3 Linear feet

0.4 Linear feet (Addition)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Date:

1906-1978

Scope and Contents:

Correspondence, photographs, business and financial records, printed matter, scrapbooks, and exhibition catalogs document Mrs. Liebman's acquisition of modern American art, European painting and decorative arts, her interest in and support of photography, her encouragement of individual artists, the inception and early history of the Museum of Modern Art, and her own painting career.

REEL 4203: Correspondence with Ansel Adams, Oscar Bluemner, Gutson Borglum, Gaston Lachaise, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, John Marin, the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Stieglitz and An American Place, Paul Strand and Edward Weston, among many others. Among the business records are receipts for works of art purchased by Mrs. Liebman. Photographs show a photography exhibition opening (1935). Printed matter, mainly newspaper clippings and gallery announcements, relates to artists represented in the Liebman Collection, exhibitions which included loans from the Liebman Collection, and events in which Aline Meyer Liebman participated. Four scrapbooks (1936-1947), comprised of printed matter, correspondence, and photographs, relate to Aline Meyer Liebman's career as a painter. Six exhibition catalogs date from 1921 to 1935. Other material concerns Edgar Degas, Artistide Maillol, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, and Gino Severini.

ADDITION (NOT MICROFILMED): Letters, 1906-1978; invoices for paintings purchased, 1929-1931; financial statements; photographs of Liebman's apartment, works in the Liebman Collection, paintings by Aline Meyer Liebman, and exhibition installations; and a catalog of Parke-Bernet's 1955 Liebman sale.

Biographical / Historical:

Aline Meyer Liebman (1879-1966) was a painter, art patron, and collector of modern art from New York, N.Y. Born in Los Angeles, Calif., Aline Meyer Liebman studied at Barnard College, and with Stefan Hirsch and Henry Mosler. She exhibited at Walker Galleries (1936), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1937), Bennington College (1937), Portland Museum (1939), and Weyhe Gallery (1943), among others.

Provenance:

Donated 1986 and 1989 by Margaret Liebman Berger, Aline Meyer Liebman's daughter.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Occupation:

Art patrons -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- United States  Search this

Photographers -- United States  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art patronage -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Modernism (Art) -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Photography, Artistic -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Women painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Identifier:

AAA.liebalin

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-liebalin

Creator:

Demuth, Charles, 1883-1935  Search this

Names:

Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this

Henderson, Helen W. (Helen Weston), 1874-  Search this

Locher, Beatrice  Search this

Locher, Robert E. (Robert Evans), b. 1888  Search this

McBride, Henry, 1867-1962  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Ronnebeck, Arnold, 1885-1947  Search this

Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965  Search this

Sheeler, Katharine  Search this

Stettheimer, Florine, 1871-1944  Search this

Street, Susan Watts  Search this

Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963  Search this

Extent:

98 Items ((on 1 microfilm reel))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

[ca. 1890-1936]

Scope and Contents:

Postcards and letters from Helen W. Henderson, Robert and Beatrice Locher, Arnold Ronnebeck, Charles and Katharine Sheeler, Florine Stettheimer, Susan Watts Street, William Carlos Williams, Marsden Hartley, Henry McBride, Georgia O'Keeffe and others; postcards and letters to his mother Agusta Demuth, from Charles while in Paris, 1921; photos of Demuth and others; photographs of Demuth's childhood sketchbook containing 27 drawings of flowers, birds, insects, and animals; 3 photos of landscapes in oil; and a pamphlet by Henry C. Demuth tracing the history of Demuth Tobacco Shop, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Biographical / Historical:

Painter; Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Provenance:

Material on frames 2-129 lent for microfilming by collector Pauline Stauffer; Frames 130-230 by Harris C. Arnold, Demuth family attorney, 1981.

Restrictions:

The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.

Occupation:

Painters -- Pennsylvania  Search this

Topic:

Art, American -- Pennsylvania -- Lancaster  Search this

Identifier:

AAA.demuchar

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-demuchar

Creator:

Walton, Marion, b. 1899  Search this

Names:

Beard, Mary Ritter, 1876-1958  Search this

Carmer, Carl Lamson, 1893  Search this

Cowell, Henry, 1897-1965  Search this

Daniels, Jonathan, 1902-1981  Search this

Forrestal, James, 1892-1949  Search this

Gage-Colby, Ruth  Search this

Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966 -- Photographs  Search this

Jameson, Storm, 1891-1986  Search this

Kadar, Bela  Search this

Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this

Marsh, Fred Dana, 1872-1961  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973 -- Photographs  Search this

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962  Search this

Ruggles, Carl, 1876-1971  Search this

Sargent, John Singer, 1856-1925  Search this

Seeger, Pete, 1919-2014  Search this

Shaw, Charles Green, 1892-1974  Search this

Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997  Search this

Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921  Search this

Walton, Blanche Wetherill  Search this

Williams, Shirley, 1930-  Search this

Extent:

0.8 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Date:

1915-1976

Summary:

This small collection of the papers of sculptor Marion Walton measures 0.8 linear feet and dates from 1915-1976. Fifteen folders of letters written to Marion and her mother Blanche Wetherill Walton include many from artists and photographers, writers, musicians and composers, and political figures. Also found are printed materials, photographs, and a file concerning a reception for author Jonathan Daniels.

Scope and Content Note:

The collection measures 0.8 linear feet, dates from 1915-1976, and documents the career of sculptor Marion Walton. Found within the papers are letters, printed material, photographs, and a file concerning a reception for author Jonathan Daniels.

Letters include those received by Walton and her mother, music patron Blanche Wetherill Walton, from many notable correspondents, including artist Charles Green Shaw, historian and suffragist Mary Beard, and novelist Vera Brittain. There are scattered letters from artists Béla Kádár, Rockwell Kent, Fred Dana Marsh, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Theo Stamos, and Abbott Handerson Thayer, composers Henry Cowell and Carl Ruggles, musician Pete Seeger, lecturer Ruth Gage-Colby, photographer Roy E. Stryker, political figures James Forrestal, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Shirley Williams, and writers Carl Carmer and Margaret Storm Jameson.

Printed material primarily consists of clippings and exhibition catalogs, and photographs are of Walton, her family, colleagues, and artwork. Of special interest is an early photograph of Alberto Giacometti with Rodin's model Carmen, and a photograph of Pablo Picasso autographed on the reverse.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into 4 series. All series are arranged chronologically.

Series 1: Letters, 1922-1976 (Box 1; 15 folders)

Series 2: File Concerning a Reception for Jonathan Daniels, 1946 (Box 1; 14 folders)

Series 3: Printed Material, 1924-1976 (Boxes 1-2; 17 folders)

Series 4: Photographs, 1915-1972 (Box 2; 18 folders)

Biographical Note:

Marion Walton was born in 1905 in New Rochelle, New York, the daughter of Ernest Forster Walton and music patron Blanche Wetherill Walton. During the 1920s, she studied at the Art Students League and, from approximately 1922 to 1924, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris under sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. One of her classmates was Alberto Giacometti.

In 1933, Walton had a solo exhibition at the Weyhe Gallery and later participated in numerous group exhibitions primarily in New York City and in Paris, France. Her work is represented in private collections in the United States and abroad, and in the museum of the University of Nebraska.

Walton taught students in her studio in New York City and at Sarah Lawrence College. She was also a member of Artists Equity and a charter member of the Sculptors Guild.

Walton was married to James Putnam, assistant to the President of the publishing house, MacMillan Company.

Marion Walton died in 1996.

Provenance:

The Marion Walton papers were donated in 1976 by Marion Walton.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Marion Walton papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Topic:

Women sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Citation:

Marion Walton papers, 1915-1976. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.waltmari

See more items in:

Marion Walton papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-waltmari

Author:

Jennings, Patricia 1926-  Search this

Ausherman, Maria Elizabeth  Search this

Saville, Jennifer 1955-  Search this

Meeker, James (James J.) 1935-  Search this

Subject:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986 Travel  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986 Criticism and interpretation  Search this

Physical description:

113 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm

Type:

Books

Pictorial works

Art

Criticism, interpretation, etc

Place:

Hawaii

Date:

2011

©2011

Topic:

In art  Search this

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_sil_1049099

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Photographer:

Stieglitz, Alfred 1864-1946  Search this

Subject:

O'Keeffe, Georgia  Search this

Physical description:

1 folder

Type:

Photograph

Artist files

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Portrait female  Search this

Portrait female--Occupation--Artist  Search this

Occupation--Art--Painter  Search this

Image number:

VFM VF002176

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_140801

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Physical description:

1 photomechanical print color

Type:

Photomechanical prints

Date:

Copyrighted 1936

Topic:

Still Life--Foliage  Search this

Image number:

LOC LC001571

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Library of Congress Copyright Deposit Collection

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_139421

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Photographer:

Rosenblum, Walter 1919-2006  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1929

Topic:

ACA Galleries  Search this

Object--Foliage--Oak  Search this

Image number:

ROS R0005977

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_135399

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Image number:

JUL J0096508

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_96509

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1908

Topic:

Still Life--Game--Rabbit  Search this

Still Life--Other--Cookware  Search this

Image number:

JUL J0096599

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_96600

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1928?

Topic:

Undetermined  Search this

Image number:

JUL J0096600

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_96601

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1919

Topic:

Abstract  Search this

Image number:

JUL J0085851

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_85852

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Topic:

Study  Search this

Cityscape--New York--New York City  Search this

Architecture exterior--Commercial--Skyscraper  Search this

Still Life--Flower--Rose  Search this

Abstract  Search this

Image number:

JUL J0081053

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_81054

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1932

Topic:

Cityscape--New York--New York City  Search this

Architecture exterior--Commercial--Skyscraper  Search this

Still Life--Flower--Rose  Search this

Abstract  Search this

Image number:

JUL J0081015

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_81016

Artist:

O'Keeffe, Georgia 1887-1986  Search this

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1921

Topic:

Still Life--Flower--Lily  Search this

Image number:

JUL J0023843

See more items in:

Photograph Archives

Data Source:

Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_jul_23844

Creator:

Richardson, Edgar Preston, 1902-1985  Search this

Richardson, Constance, 1905-  Search this

Names:

Archives of American Art  Search this

Castano Galleries (Boston, Mass.)  Search this

Detroit Institute of Arts  Search this

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum  Search this

Historical Society of Pennsylvania  Search this

Macbeth Gallery  Search this

National Collection of Fine Arts (U.S.)  Search this

National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)  Search this

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts  Search this

Philadelphia Museum of Art  Search this

White House (Washington, D.C.)  Search this

Peale family  Search this

Allen, Joseph  Search this

Allston, Washington, 1779-1843  Search this

Andrews, Wayne  Search this

Aram, Siegfried F.  Search this

Bishop, Isabel, 1902-1988  Search this

Bostick, William A.  Search this

Bouché, Louis, 1896-1969  Search this

Boyd, Julian P. (Julian Parks), 1903-  Search this

Castano, Giovanni, 1896-1978  Search this

Cohn, Harold  Search this

Copeland, Lammot du Pont  Search this

Culver, Charles B. (Charles Beach), 1908-1967  Search this

Fleischman, Lawrence A. (Lawrence Arthur), 1925-1997  Search this

Flexner, James Thomas, 1908-2003  Search this

Frankenstein, Alfred V. (Alfred Victor), 1906-1981  Search this

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998  Search this

Freeman, Michael W.  Search this

Garrison, Eve Josephson, 1903-2003  Search this

Groce, George C., 1899-  Search this

Hardy, Jeremiah Pearson, 1800-1889  Search this

Heil, Walter, 1890-1973  Search this

Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this

Jungwirth, Irene G. (Irene Gayas), 1913-  Search this

Krentzin, Earl, 1929-  Search this

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this

Lee-Smith, Hughie  Search this

Lewis, W. S. (Wilmarth Sheldon), 1895-1979  Search this

Lynes, Russell, 1910-1991  Search this

Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this

Mast, Gerald, 1908-1971  Search this

McDermott, John Francis, 1902-  Search this

Middeldorf, Ulrich Alexander, 1901-  Search this

Morse, John D., 1906-  Search this

Moser, Liselotte, 1906-1983  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia , 1887-1986  Search this

Oliver, Andrew, 1906-  Search this

Peale, Charles Willson, 1741-1827  Search this

Pleasants, J. Hall (Jacob Hall), 1873-1957  Search this

Ripley, Sidney Dillon, 1913-2001  Search this

Rockefeller, John D., 1906-  Search this

Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979  Search this

Rutledge, Anna Wells  Search this

Sellers, Charles Coleman, 1903-  Search this

Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965  Search this

Simper, Fred, 1914-  Search this

Simpson, Corelli C. W.  Search this

Soria, Regina, 1911-  Search this

Spark, Victor D. (Victor David), 1898-1991  Search this

Speck, Walter, 1895-  Search this

Stevens, William B.  Search this

Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold, 1880-1958  Search this

Vose, Robert C. (Robert Churchill), 1911-1998  Search this

Watkins, Franklin Chenault, 1894-1972  Search this

Wedda, John  Search this

Woolfenden, William E. (William Edward), 1918-1995  Search this

Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009  Search this

Extent:

28.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Manuscripts

Interviews

Diaries

Transcripts

Sketches

Lectures

Place:

Detroit (Mich.)

Date:

1814-1996

bulk 1921-1996

Summary:

The papers of art historian E. P. Richardson measure 28.7 linear feet and date from 1814-1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-1996. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials; acquisition files for Richardson's personal art collection; professional and personal correspondence with colleagues, art historians and critics, artists, museums, galleries, and dealers; numerous writings, including manuscripts and research files for his published books, articles, and lectures; general research notebooks and files compiled by Richardson on a wide variety of art-related topics and artists; professional and committee files; as well as a smaller amount of Constance C. Richardson's papers.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of art historian E. P. Richardson measure 28.7 linear feet and date from 1814-1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-1996. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials; acquisition files for Richardson's personal art collection; professional and personal correspondence with colleagues, art historians and critics, artists, museums, galleries, and dealers; numerous writings, including manuscripts and research files for his published books, articles, and lectures; general research notebooks and files compiled by Richardson on a wide variety of art-related topics and artists; professional and committee files; as well as a smaller amount of Constance C. Richardson's papers.

Biographical materials include certificates, awards, and honorary degrees, membership information, personal and family photographs, a few sketches, and a transcript of an oral history Interview with E.P. Richardson conducted by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1982.

There are acquisitions files for the Richardsons' personal art collection that invoices, photographs, correspondence with galleries and collectors, appraisals, price lists, and artwork examination forms.

Correspondence is with colleagues, art dealers, collectors, museums and museum curators, foreign scholars, organizations, galleries, artists, art historians and critics, publishers, editors, librarians, friends, and family. Topics regard purchasing art for various collections, consultations about art and collecting including authentications and attributions, publishing, general art history, lectures, and personal matters, among other topics. There is correspondence with the Archives of American Art, Castano Galleries, Lawrence Fleischman, James Thomas Flexner, Alfred V. Frankenstein, George Croce, Walter Heil, Earl Krentzin, Wilmarth Lewis, Russel Lynes, John Francis McDermott, Philadelphia Museum of Art, J. Hall Pleasants, Anna Rutledge, Charles Sellers, Smithsonian Institution, Regina Soria, Victor Spark, William Stevens, Robert Vose, William Woolfenden, and many others. Scattered correspondence with artists is with Isabel Bishop, Louis Bouche, William Bostick, Eve Garrison, Edward Hopper, Irene Jungwirth, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Hughie Lee-Smith, Reginald Marsh, Gerald Mast, Georgia O'Keefe, Charles Sheeler, Walt Speck, and John Wedda, among many others. The greatest extent of correspondence is with Andrew Wyeth, Harold Cohn, and Frederick Simper. There is also personal correspondence with family and friends, and between E.P. and Constance Richardson.

E.P. Richardson's prominence as an art historian, writer, and expert on collecting is well documented through his prolific writings. Materials include drafts, notes, typescripts, and outlines for articles, exhibition catalog essays, and lectures. Also found are research files and publishing documentation for Richardson's books, including Washington Allston: A Study of the Romantic Artist in America (1948), Painting in America (1956), Charles Willson Peale and his World (1983), and American Romantic Painting (1944). There are also miscellaneous notes and four diaries. Two of the diaries comment on the social and cultural life of Detroit; the authenticity of paintings; Richardson's reflections on contemporary American painting, thoughts about museums, dealers, artists, and art historians (especially Wilhelm R. Valentiner); and travel.

Notebooks compiled by Richardson on a wide variety art-related topics cover nearly six decades. There are also numerous research files organized Richardson about individual artists and art history. And, the art collector files contain reference materials about art collectors and their collections including Lamont du Pont Copeland, Michael W. Freeman, Nelson Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen, and the Marquis de Somerlous. There are three index card file boxes containing bibliographic data on published books and articles.

Professional and committee files document Richardson's professional and consulting work for the Art Quarterly, Detroit Institute of Arts, National Collection of Fine Arts, the National Portrait Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the John D. Rockefeller III collection, Winterthur Museum, the White House, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Constance C. Richardson's papers include business and professional correspondence with various institutions, most extensively with the Macbeth Gallery. In addition, there is a smaller amount of personal correspondence, photographs and slides of her artworks, printed materials, two illustrated notebooks on her work, and miscellaneous notes. Also included is Constance's artist palette.

Biographical / Historical:

Art historian, museum director, and writer E. P. (Edgar Preston) Richardson (1902-1985) served as director of the Detroit Institute of Arts (1945-1962) and Winterthur Museum (1963-1966). He was also a board member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1966-1977 and, in 1954, co-founded the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

E. P. Richardson was born in 1902 in Glens Falls, New York and died in Philadelphia in 1985. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1925 and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for the three years following graduation. In 1930 he became educational secretary at the Detroit Institute of Arts, was quickly named assistant director in 1933, and served as director from 1945 to 1962. He left Detroit to take the position of director of the Winterthur Museum, where he remained until 1966. Richardson married Constance Coleman in 1931. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1905, Constance Coleman Richardson was an award-winning and widely exhibited realist style painter of American landscapes. She gave up painting in the 1960s and died in 2002.

While at the Detroit Institute of Arts, E. P. Richardson co-founded the Archives of American Art with Lawrence Fleischman, and served as the Archives' first director. Richardson was also art advisor to John D. Rockefeller III for over ten years, editor of Art Quarterly from 1938 to 1967, and a member of various boards, including the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Arts Commission, and the National Portrait Gallery. He authored numerous books including ones on artists Washington Allston and Charles Willson Peale, and The Way of Western Art: American Romantic Painting (1939), Painting in America: The Story of Four Hundred and Fifty Years (1956), A Short History of Painting in America (1963), and American Art, an Exhibition of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3d (1976).

Related Materials:

Related collections among the holdings of the Archives of American Art include an interview with E.P. Richardson dated February 6, 1978 conducted by Linda Downs; and several miscellaneous manuscripts that include an E.P. Richardson Letter to Rockwell Kent, June 15 1959; E.P. Richardson letters to Lawrence Arthur Fleischman, May 13, 1962 and August 22 1954; and a Yasuo Kunioshi letter to E.P. Richardson, July 25 1948.

Additional E.P. Richardson papers are found at the Detroit Institute of Arts and in the archives of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Separated Materials:

The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel D46) including E.P. Richardson's research material on Jeremiah P. Hardy. These materials are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Library and are not described in the collection container inventory.

Provenance:

Edith Wilkinson first donated a letter to E. P. Richardson from herself in 1957. E.P. Richardson donated papers to the Archives of American Art in 1958 and 1960 and lent materials for microfilming in 1961. Addition material was donated by Constance Richardson in 1985, and by Martha Fleischman in 2003.

Restrictions:

Use of original material requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact References Services for more information.

Rights:

The E.P. (Edgar Preston) and Constance Richardson papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Occupation:

Authors -- Michigan -- Detroit  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Painting, American  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Romanticism in art  Search this

Art -- History -- Study and teaching  Search this

Art historians -- United States  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Manuscripts

Interviews

Diaries

Transcripts

Sketches

Lectures

Citation:

Edgar P. Richardson papers, 1814-1996, bulk 1921-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Identifier:

AAA.richedga

See more items in:

E.P. (Edgar Preston) and Constance Richardson papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-richedga